Once trade rumors get rolling, they are almost impossible to stop. Even when they made no sense.

Like the Hornets trying to trade Chris Paul. That’s not a normal kind of insane, that’s like Charlie Manson level insane. It makes no real sense. So owner George Shinn came forward to put an end to that with a public statement:

“The resolve that my partner Gary Chouest and I have will always remain the same – to continue to build our legacy in New Orleans, and to develop a path and plan to win an NBA Championship for New Orleans and all of Louisiana. We are about building and sustaining a winning tradition. Chris Paul is the cornerstone of our franchise and brings us unequaled support on and off the court. We will continue to build around Chris Paul, and we want to see him in a Hornets uniform for the remainder of his career. We have an exciting future, and with the leadership of our new head coach and players like Chris Paul, we know the best is yet to come. We plan to take advantage of any opportunities to improve our team.”

So that should clear everything up, right? Exactly. Read that last sentence again. He’s like a kid with his fingers cross behind his back. Somebody wants some wiggle room, just in case.

That’s a fine sentiment. Saying it publicly is another matter. Not even Harden did that a couple years ago. He was recorded during a pregame team huddle.

There’s a fine line between self-fulfilling confidence and providing bulletin-board material to the opponent. There’s already some animosity between the teams stemming from the Stephen Curry-Harden MVP race in 2015, and it has bubbled since. No matter how harmless Capela’s remark might have been intended to be, it’ll be met contentiously in the Bay Area.

Oklahoma City traded for Victor Oladipo out of Orlando to be their third scorer, behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t exactly work out that way, Durant bolted town and when Westbrook went off Oladipo was looking for a place to fit in.

That place turned out to be the Pacers.

Oladipo has been playing like an All-Star this season with Indiana, and last week he was key in snapping Cleveland’s 13 game win streak, then turned around and dropped 47 points on Denver. For the week he averaged 35.7 points a game, shot 45.7 percent from three, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game.